


SSPB-011: A Chance to Revisit Paris

by StellarStylus



Series: StellarStylus Plot Bunny farm [11]
Category: Century Rain, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Crossover, Plot Bunny, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:20:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23879809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StellarStylus/pseuds/StellarStylus
Summary: Plot bunny one-shot, up for adoption. A handful of centuries later, Marinette is still alive and is still the last Guardian of the Miraculous. Nowadays, she is trying to save not only Earth and the human race, but also the entire galaxy beyond that. Her current objective: To investigate this strange world designated "Earth-2" and stop a catastrophe. (Crossover with CENTURY RAIN)
Series: StellarStylus Plot Bunny farm [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1553272
Kudos: 7





	SSPB-011: A Chance to Revisit Paris

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: I don't own either Miraculous or Century Rain; the former belongs to Thomas Astruc, Zagtoon and Method Animation, and the latter belongs to Alastair Reynolds. This is just a one-shot which came to mind, but a plot bunny potentially worth exploring.

_Oh, Gay Paris,_ she thought to herself. _How I've missed you._

Except this wasn't _her_ Paris.

 _That_ Paris — the actual, original version of Paris — had been rendered uninhabitable because of the technological catastrophe known as the Nanocaust, along with the rest of planet Earth.

Honestly, Marinette Dupain-Cheng had been lucky to retrieve all the Miraculous and get off-planet before it all fell apart in the Nanocaust. As the last Guardian, she had secured the Miracle Box and all the kwami and their Miraculous that belonged in it.

It had only been three hundred years ago when she had learned about the Miraculous and became the superhero Ladybug for the first time, but never in her unbelievably prolonged life could she have imagined that something like _this_ could happen.

(It turned out that trying to use nanobots to fix the weather wasn't such a good idea. Who knew?)

She had been _so_ tempted to combine the Ladybug Earrings and the Black Cat Ring to make the wish and undo all the damage caused to the planet... but who knew what the cost might be? That was the only thing stopping her from doing it.

And so she lived a secluded life, or at least as secluded as it could get in the Commonwealth and all their life-supporting stations which orbited the ruined planet Earth.

But then her faction made this incredible discovery: A copy of planet of Earth, preserved like a fly in amber.

...Well, not quite exactly like the original.

They followed the wormhole to the other end to find Earth where the Second World War never happened. Or rather, it had ended prematurely when the German invasion of France in 1940 suddenly fell apart. And now, in the year 1959 (or at least by this world's reckoning), life continued but without the technological advancements which came out of that conflict, leaving it stagnant at 1930s levels of technology.

Advancements which would have helped mankind leave Earth and explore the starts. Technology which would have made the inhabitants of Earth-2 (or just "E2" for short) realize that their world was a fake, contained within a shell.

It certainly fit with the radical working theory that some aliens had long ago taken a "quantum snapshot" of Earth and every living thing on it and stashed it away like valuables in a safety deposit box.

Except that, somehow, time had resumed and this world's human history had veered off in a radically different direction.

 _Just when you think the universe can't get any crazier_ _,_ she'd thought to herself.

And so Marinette had discretely used her connections to tag along with that woman Verity Auger on this mission to E2 in order to find the messages left behind by the other woman named Susan White.

While Verity went off to do her own thing with a local named Wendell Floyd (an American expatriate who was a part-time jazz musician but now trying to earn income with a friend of his as detectives), Marinette snooped around this alternate version of Paris.

Landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame and the Louvre Museum were still there, of course, but plenty of other things were missing. The Périphérique, which had been built after World War II, didn't exist here. And she didn't even bother wondering about the glass pyramid in front of the Louvre, as it still wouldn't have been constructed for another several years.

Marinette allowed herself a small, rueful smile as she remembered all the bouts which she'd fought around these places as Ladybug, with her partner Cat Noir by her side.

And then, as if on autopilot, she found herself standing in front of the building which would have been — _should have been?_ — her family's business and home.

Here it was a bakery too, but it just wasn't the same. Obviously, it wasn't even the fact that it wasn't the bakery run by Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng, neither of whom would have even been born yet.

...And, to be honest, it was nowhere near as good as Tom's baking. And she wasn't just saying this out of bias; even now, a few centuries later, she could still taste her father's croissants and macarons.

Still, anything to support the local economy, she supposed.

And now she was wondering what to do next. She was a bit curious if College Françoise Dupont was still here in this reality too... but was very keen to avoid the plot of land which was home to the Agreste mansion, especially if she could help it.

Too many ghosts in too many corners, but some of those ghosts were more tolerable and even more welcome than others.

Logically, theoretically, whatever... Marinette knew what she was getting into when she went on this trip, but that didn't stop it from being any less emotionally impactful.

 _"Well, at least we'll always have Paris,"_ she remarked to herself, in English, lampooning one of those classic quotes from the movie _Casablanca_.

Ironic, seeing as that movie didn't exist here in E2, as its inspiration and its very reason for being never happened.

She was just leaving the building which would have been - should have been? - her family's business and home, when she saw a certain couple down the street.

No way... it couldn't be...

It was Wang Fu and Marianne Lenoir.

For all of her professionalism and her skill at keeping secrets, she still found herself staring slack-jawed at them as they approached her.

Madame Lenoir looked about fifty years younger, while Master Fu looked about the same and about as aged as when Marinette knew him.

Thinking fast, Marinette ducked into the alley behind the bakery and let them pass by. After a few moments and when she was certain that they hadn't seen her, she slowly exited the alley and discreetly followed them.

And here was the other reason why she had come along on this trip: To find out if the Miraculous items themselves had also been duplicated.

And if the Miraculous had been duplicated, then what about the Kwami themselves? What about Tikki and Plagg? What about Wayzz and Trixx and Pollen and Nooroo and Duusu, and all the rest of them? Would these duplicate Miraculous items function just as well as the genuine articles? Were the missing Miraculous of the Butterfly and the Peacock still lost and missing somewhere in this duplicate world, in this Earth's version of Tibet, just waiting to be found?

Despite possessing multiple centuries' worth of patience, Marinette found herself too eager to get some answers right away.

And that meant following Master Fu and Madame Lenoir. And speaking of which...

She followed discretely at a distance. Hopefully this version of Master Fu would lead her to the Miracle Box — well, _this_ world's version of the Miracle Box — and she could finally get some answers...

**Author's Note:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTES: ...Yeah, so, this idea came to mind because of the importance of the city of Paris in both things being crossed over here; not only does Miraculous take place there (obviously), but there are 2 different versions of Paris in Century Rain: the ruined version post-Nanocaust on the original Earth, and the alternate 1950s version on Earth-2. And, as a bonus, consider how that could have affected Master Fu and Madame Lenoir! At least I managed to put those two together!
> 
> (...And y'all thought I couldn't come up with weirder crossovers...)
> 
> But FWIW, I totally recommend this novel: Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds. It's a stand-alone novel, separate from his big Revelation Space series, but it's so good that people have been clamoring for the author for a sequel which he'll never write. If you're going to read only one book by this author, then I recommend this one.
> 
> This is something which I would like to return to someday and write a full-length version, but who knows if that will ever happen. Still, imagine the possibilities, like revisiting the battle scene towards the end atop the teetering Eiffel Tower in the abandoned city of Paris on the original Earth (which is ironic, given the number of times it's been damaged and/or knocked over in the Miraculous cartoon).


End file.
